Selah for the New Year

I honestly can't remember when this tradition started. Maybe in 2006? This is why I blog, so I remember these things! 😂

We are up at Selah tonight, our JV retreat house, to celebrate the new year with these dear ones!

L-R top row: Austin, Mel, Amy, Noah, Connie, Dave; L-R bottom row: Hayley, Hannah, Jill & Claire

Each year there are a few different faces in the picture, including this year with a fiancé, Austin, and a new wife, Jill! (who belong, respectively, to Hayley and Noah Ellenwood).

It's tradition to take these photos in the same spot every year we're up here: the normal ones and the silly ones!

There have been years when we haven't been all together on New Years, but when we do, it's a sweet and enjoyable time with this bunch of fun-loving people.

As always, the tradition of a spectacular fireworks display in the valley dazzled us!

PC on all photos: Claire - so glad she had her camera to capture this!

This spectacular display goes on across the whole region for at least a half hour!

We had nearly a full moon and clear sky, with the view across the valley to Lysá hora positively magical. They were setting off fireworks from the top too, which made it all the more beautiful (there is no public road to the top, so unless the fireworks were brought up in a service vehicle, they were most likely carried up by hikers!).

This is one of those European traditions that I've loved for many years: have been watching a fireworks display somewhere across this region since 1987 when I first saw it in Germany.

But before the fireworks, we spent an hour in the JV Prayer Room together, finishing up the year as we'd started it: praying for a movement of God across this region of the world.

Tomorrow I'll write more about the Prayer Room, and if we met our goal of 8760 hours in 2017 or not.

But this couldn't have been a sweeter hour of prayer as we finished up the new year asking God to do his work to save people and transform their lives so that they proclaim Christ in their countries, and beyond.

I loved doing it with these people, who all share a heart and have a vision to see God move across this continent.

Praying that this year of concentrated prayer will have only been the tip of the iceberg, and that we will see God continue to move even more in 2018!!